(Jon Stewart) and I just want one thing

Something else I’ve learned with all the hubbub around marriage equality: we’re all just looking for information that confirms what we already “know” (i.e., believe), and we rarely engage in discussion in a way that supports learning or discovery of new information. In other words, we’re all just trying to make a point, and we need the most believable stuff out there to win: statistics and an abstract from a research article.

I’ll illustrate by referring to the infamous Regnerus study. If you believe marriage should be between one man and one woman, you might grab onto the study and say something like “research shows that children raised by gay couples aren’t as well-adjusted as children raised by a mom and a day” without having first read the study.

Or you might rely on a summary of the research from a secondhand source like Fox News.

Or a friend.

In short, few of us do our own reading and thinking, and even fewer of us think critically about how people come to the conclusions they come to. We accept it on authority. And I’ll admit — I do it too. Jon Stewart is my go too source for accurate, factual information.

And this becomes problematic when it comes to important topics like marriage equality and human rights. It almost always becomes a game of he said she said. Or rather Jon Stewart said Bill O’Reilly said.

I’m not really sure how the discussion should happen. It seems like asking questions and having a dialogue should be enough, but that always comes across as challenging the source of authority. And this is problematic when the authority is God, a prophet of God, or Jon Stewart. You can’t challenge them. They’re smart, educated people. 

Here’s another problem. It’s easy for me when people challenge Jon Stewart. He’s just a dude with a talk show. It’s probably not as easy for other people when God is challenged. He’s THE dude that knows it all. And when research doesn’t confirm (or deny) the message he trying to send through his messengers, it kinda plays with you.

That’s what I love about our country. It was set up so we won’t have to have these conversations. It was set up so you can go to church on Sunday and I can watch Jon Stewart four nights of the week. You can believe I’m going to hell for marrying a dude, and I can believe you’re wrong. I can believe I’m happy, and you can believe only straight families are happy. I’m okay with that.

So I’ll conclude with one point.

And state what I want (and it’s not an attack on your God or your religion) regardless of what research or religion says: equality.

Most influential internet videos of 2011

To kick off the new year I thought I’d post internet videos that were influential to me (and others) last year.  Not all these videos were published in 2011 but that’s when I first watched them.  Here they are.

Early last year Republicans proposed legislation that would eliminate abortion funding for rape victims.  Jon Stewart made them look pretty foolish on The Daily Show.  Wordpress won’t let me embed this video, so click the link below to watch it.  You’ll be redirected to The Daily Show website.

Rape Victim Abortion Funding – The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

ABC has a showed called What Would You Do?  This is the first episode I saw which depicts a lesbian couple with their daughter being confronted by their waiter.

Here’s a video by Linda Stay.  She relates how she learned her son Tyler is gay and what that experience was like from a Mormon perspective.  She goes into more depth on these experiences in the documentary 8: The Mormon Proposition.

Emily Pearson also appeared in 8: The Mormon Proposition.  In this video she relates experiences with gay men she was close to and her journey out of the LDS Church.

Here’s an ABC Nightline report on Journey into Manhood, a gay conversion camp many gay Mormons participate in.

2011 Tribute to Lady GaGa

And of course, no blog authored by a gay man would be complete without a tribute to Lady GaGa.  Here are my top videos by the Lord herself.  To start, here’s a video by Jonah Mowry that captured Her (capital H-E-R) attention.

Lady GaGa responded to teen suicide possibly more than any other celebrity.  She brought these suicides to the attention of officials in the White House.  Although she is written off too frequently because of her eccentricity, she’s doing some pretty cool things for LGBTQ youth.  Here’s her tribute to Jamey Rodemeyer who committed suicide in 2011.

Here’s a story by ABC about GaGa’s efforts to stop bullying.

Finally, here’s a parody of Lady GaGa’s Edge of Glory reminds me of our commitment ceremony.  This was created around the time New York passed gay marriage.